Dan "Dance" Malesela in his days as an Orlando Pirates player.
It was a late-Sunday afternoon when Dan "Dance" Malesela obliged a fan and wore his makarapa to collect the Bob Save trophy on Orlando Pirates' behalf. Dance was 24, making him one of the youngest Pirates captains in the modern era to collect a major trophy.
Malesela's team had achieved what the local football fraternity called the impossible. Their side, boasting mainly journeymen and talented but inexperienced youngsters, had beaten South Africa's cup kings Kaizer Chiefs in a cup final. Not only that, they had beaten AmaKhosi in a replay at Ellis Park. It was as if it was a law of nature that Chiefs could not lose cup finals and the best the other teams could do was to get an opportunity to play twice – but the outcome was inevitable.
Until Malesela and his team achieved this remarkable feat in 1988, it would have been unclear to anyone who had only been following local football for the previous decade what the attraction was with the under-achieving club in black and white. The scenes of jubilation that followed their victory were to be experienced again when Nelson Mandela was released from prison about two years later.
Instrumental in what turned out to be a famous victory was another youngster from Malesela's Mabopane, northern Tshwane, neighbourhood, Lawrence "Killer" Maake, who fired past world-famed Gary Bailey to give Pirates their first major trophy since winning the Sales House Champs of Champs in 1983.
Dance and the lads from townships north of the capital city get another crack at taking on the undisputed cup kings of local football. United, who hail from Ga-Rankuwa, take on Chiefs in the Nedbank Cup semifinals.
Chiefs are on track for a cup double. They lead the log standings with the league marathon, having reached the business side of things.
Reclaiming glory
Twenty-five years since he led his side to breaking Chiefs' supporters' hearts, Malesela stands in the way of Chiefs' project to reclaim glory.
Chiefs losing to Ajax on Wednesday night might be either a blessing or a curse for Malesela's side. The upside for him is that his players might realise that Chiefs are not invincible.
The downside is that Chiefs will come out steaming just in case other upstarts begin to question their credentials as the divinely ordained kings of the local game.
United are not the first second-tier side to go so far in the competition. Though the tournament is still waiting for its first lower-league winner, for some reason worldwide, cup competitions tend to inspire minnows to achieve greatness.
In South Africa, since its days as the Mainstay Cup, which was first played in 1978, this trophy has been the stuff of dreams for many youngsters hoping to show up their more established brethren.
Trott Moloto, who went on to become national coach and has a bronze Africa Cup of Nations medal to his name, first made his name as part of the all-conquering second-tier Seshego Stonebreakers in the late 1970s.
In recent times, Witbank Aces were finalists in the inaugural Nedbank Cup final in 2008. University of Pretoria reached the finals the following year but lost to Moroka Swallows.
In 2011, Black Leopards took on Baroka FC in an all first-division semifinal, before Leopards went on to lose in the final against Pirates. Leopards were relegated at the end of that season.
Team struggling
Again, the story of a team struggling with its league form is not new. Perennial yoyo club African Wanderers always had an amazing run in the competition even though they always ended the season being relegated.
With United, there is no fear that they will be relegated. In fact, they are strong contenders for the promotion play-offs. They are third on the log, two points behind log leaders Thanda Royal Zulu, although the Richards Bay side has a game in hand.
United owner Phiri Motaung, a mining engineer by trade who made a bit of money investing in the mining industry, bought the first-division franchise from the Kimberley outfit to revive the legacy of Ga-Rankuwa United. The club is expected to be renamed Ga-Rankuwa United next season.
The greatest threat to the club building on cup success is that big-league clubs could raid the club's most talented players because they can pay them better.
For this reason, the R1-million guaranteed to the club for reaching the last four will go some way towards staving off the vultures circling over the talented side.
However, Motaung might not do much to offset the desire of every young athlete to mix it with the big boys. Success by minnows in this cup has unfortunately brought with it the undesired consequences of making their star players attractive to the establishment.
Natural inclinations
Already, Mamelodi Sundowns would have been following the progress of the likes of their on-loan starlets, Walter Maponyane and Siyabonga Shai, son of former Sundowns' star Isaac Shai.
All these are distractions best handled in the off-season. For now the talented youngsters are under Dance. In their coach, they have an ardent student of the Ted Dumitru school of football.
Malesela's game plan is based on maximising the attributes of local players, their natural inclinations, technical abilities and psyche.
The players are allowed freedom of expression and to play possession football without fear that the coach will pull them off – or his hair out – should they fail. It is not always a successful model, with some youngsters mistaking the coach's approach with a licence for individualism and other sins of youthful exuberance.
Other than United, the rest of the semifinals fixture is made up of the Premier Soccer League top four. Platinum Stars host defending champions SuperSport United next Wednesday.
This means Malesela and his lads are already winners for going this far in the tournament. That, however, should not deceive anyone who believes they will be content with what they have achieved thus far.
With a coach who knows the feeling of upsetting the odds, the last thing Kaizer Chiefs must expect is a walk in the park. Not if Dan "Dance" Malesela has anything to do with it.